Theological Studies

58 (1997)
CHRIST'S PRE-EXISTENCE IN PAULINE
SOTERIOLOGY
BRENDAN BYRNE, S.J.
[Editor's Note: The author demonstrates that Paul's writings do
not support playing down Christ's pre-existenee in the interests
of a Christology supposedly more firmly anchored in his his-
torical human life. On the contrary, the rhetorical effect of cen-
tral Pauline texts is seriously eroded if Christ is not affirmed as
the Father's pre-existent Son. At stake here is Paul's acute sense
of God's love for humanity made vulnerable to the world in the
costly gift of the Son.]
C
ONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTS of Christology, no matter how variant in
other respects, appear to agree on one thing. Virtually all insist
that the point of departure for Christology must be not metaphysical
speculation about the divine sonship of Jesus but the history of Jesus
himself: his life, preaching, and fate (death and resurrection), as por-
trayed in the total witness of the New Testament. The German scholar
Karl-Josef Kuschel in a monumental study goes so far as to speak of an
ecumenical consensus in this matter, outlining the work of represen-
tative figures such as Pannenberg, Ebeling, Moltmann, Kng, Kasper,
Schillebeeckx, Sobrino, and O'Collins, as well as pointing to the emer-
gence of this trend in the later writings of Karl Rahner. While avoid-
ing a false dichotomy between "Christology from above" and "Christol-
ogy from below," there is clearly a renewed effort to reclaim the sig-
nificance of Jesus' human history, particularly as presented in the
Synoptic Gospels, over against the tradition developed in the great
conciliar definitions, which owed so much to the Gospel of John.
BRENDAN BYRNE, S.J., is professor of New Testament at the Jesuit Theological College,
Parkville-Melbourne, Australia. He received the D.Phil, degree from Oxford. His com-
mentary on Romans has recently appeared in the Sacra Pagina Commentaries Series
(Glazier/Liturgical, 1996). He is now preparing a re-examination of Paul's understanding
of Christian ethics.
1
K-J. Kuschel, Born before All Time? The Dispute over Christ's Origin, trans. John
Bowden (London: SCM, 1992; original German 1990) 424-28.
2
E.g., W. Thsing states, "It is no longer possible, as it was in the past, to take Jesus'
divine nature as a point of departure in Christological thinking. It is more in accordance
with contemporary anthropological thought to take Jesus' humanity as point of depar-
ture" (in Karl Rahner and Wilhelm Thsing, A New Christology [London: Burns & Oates,
1980J 160), and Roger Haight notes, "As a consequence of this historical consciousness,
Christology today begins overwhelmingly with a consideration of Jesus and proceeds
throughout to underline and even stress the humanity of Jesus" ("The Case for Spirit
308
CHRISTS PRE-EXISTENCE 309
In the context of this stress upon the humanity of Christ, the notion
of his pre-existence as eternal Son of God which figured prominently in
the traditional formulations and found renewed emphasis in the dia-
lectical theology of Karl Barth, has proved to be a grave embarrass-
ment. Kuschers massive survey of the question from Barth to Schille-
beeckx provides ample evidence of this. The British scholar John Mac-
quarrie even dubs the claim that Jesus Christ, prior to his birth, had
a conscious, personal pre-existence in heaven something destructive of
his true humanity.
3
Those theologians who are not prepared, as was R. Bultmann, to
regard pre-existence as simply a mythological relic in biblical thought
and to state bluntly, "We no longer need that particular conception,"
4
face the problem of somehow saving the biblical and early conciliar
affirmations of the pre-existence of the Word, on the one hand, without
injury to the full humanity of Jesus, and, on the other hand, without
belaboring Christian proclamation with concepts meaningless to con-
temporary understanding.
In the face of this dilemma, many systematic theologians have found
blessed relief in a growing tendency among biblical scholars to regard
statements of pre-existence as relatively isolated and rare across the
broad spectrum of the New Testament. What might be called a full-
blown notion of pre-existencethe belief that the one subsequently
known as Jesus Christ somehow had a personal history with God prior
to his human lifeis regarded as more or less confined to the Johan-
nine literature and other late documents. It is notably absent from the
three Synoptic Gospels, the chief resource for the human history of
Jesus, while the earliest documents, the authentic letters of Paul (Ro-
mans, 1-2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, Phi-
lemon), if they contain the notion at all, feature it simply in the at-
tenuated, figurative sense of Christ's pre-temporal presence in the
mind and purpose of God, without any implication of personal pre-
existence. From this perspective the significance of the motif is se-
verely relativized as regards the total witness of the New Testament
and its right to exercise so dominant an influence on doctrinal formu-
lations, as in traditional Christology, put in question.
5
Among biblical scholars, the outstanding representative and indeed
champion of this view has been the British exegete James D. G. Dunn,
6
Christology," Theological Studies 53 [1992] 257-87, at 257); see also Gerald O'Collins,
Christology: A Biblical, Historical and Systematic Study of Jesus (New York: Oxford
University, 1995) 16-17.
3
Macquarrie, Jesus Christ and Modern Thought (Philadelphia: Trinity, 1990) 57; see
also Haight, "Spirit Christology" 276.
4
See Kuschel, Born before All Time? 133-34.
5
This attempt is evident in the entire survey of the biblical evidence offered in the
central portion of Kuschel's work (ibid. 222-395).
6
Dunn's strictures against the idea of Christ's pre-existence are to be found in several
places within his extensive writings; the most sustained and express treatment is given
310 THEOLOGICAL STUDIES
with whom can be associated in particular Jerome Murphy-O'Connor,
7
John A. T. Robinson,
8
and now Stanley Stowers.
9
The influence of
this tendency is clear in the caution of scholars who adopt more mod-
erate positions, such as John Ziesler.
10
John Macquarrie offers a notable example of the impact such views
have had upon systematic theologians. Macquarrie enthusiastically
endorses a Christology from below in the form proposed by Dunn:
This . . . type of interpretation not only fits well with the modern insistence on
the full humanity of Christ..., but also dispenses with the mythological idea
of a personal pre-existence of Jesus Christ.... It is perfectly compatible with
(and probably demands) the idea that Jesus Christ pre-existed in the mind and
purpose of God.... If one wants to go beyond this and claim that Jesus Christ
had prior to his birth a conscious, personal pre-existence in 'heaven', this is not
only mythological but is, I believe, destructive of his true humanity.
11
A similar indebtedness to Dunn is illustrated by Roger Haight in his
development of a Spirit Christology, to which I shall return later.
12
It is not my intention here to attempt a new resolution of this issue
along systematic lines. Nor do I intend even to review the biblical
evidence across the entire range of the New Testament, let alone the
wider background in pre-Christian Judaism and the Greco-Roman
world. The focus of this article is principally on Paul who, because of
the dates of his writings, remains the key figure. I hope to provide
in Christology in the Making: An Inquiry into the Origins of the Doctrine of the Incar-
nation (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1980) 113-25; see also Romans 1-8 (Dallas: Word
Books, 1988) 278. For critical response to Dunn, see especially the issue of Semeia 30
(1985) entitled Christology and Exegesis: New Approaches, ed. R. Jewett with contribu-
tions from C. Holladay, L. Hurtado, A. F. Segal, R. H. Fuller, D. Juel, and a response
from Dunn himself. See further L. D. Hurst, "Re-enter the Pre-existent Christ in Phil-
ippians 2.5-11?" New Testament Studies 32 (1986) 449-57; C. A. Wanamaker, "Philip-
pians 2.6-11: Son of God or Adamic Christology?" NTS 33 (1987) 179-93, esp. 182-83;
N. T. Wright, "Harpagmos and the Meaning of Philippians 2.5-11," Journal of Theologi-
cal Studies n.s. 37 (1986) 321-52, substantially reproduced in Wright's The Climax of the
Covenant: Christ and the Law in Pauline Theology (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1991)
56-98. Dunn has further replied to his critics in the Foreword to the second edition of
Christology in the Making (1989) xi-xxxix.
7
Murphy-O'Connor, "Christological Anthropology in Phil. 2.6-11," Revue biblique 83
(1976) 25-50.
8
Robinson, The Human Face of God (London: SCM, 1973) 162-66, esp. 166; see also
C. H. Talbert, 'The Problem of Pre-Existence in Philippians 2:6-11," Journal of Biblical
Literature 86 (1967) 141-53; G. Howard, "Phil 2:6-11 and the Human Christ," Catholic
Biblical Quarterly 40 (1978) 368-87; M. Rissi, "Der Christushymnus in Phil 2,6-11," in
W. Haase and H. Temporini, ed., Aufstieg und Niedergang der rmischen Welt: Teil II
(Principat) 25.4 (1987) 3314-26, esp. 3317-18.
9
Stowers, A Rereading of Romans: Justice, Jews and Gentiles (New Haven: Yale
University, 1995) 220.
10
Ziesler, Pauline Christianity, rev. ed. (New York: Oxford University, 1990) 42-43;
see also Luke Timothy Johnson, The Real Jesus (San Francisco: Harper, 1996) 162.
11
Macquarrie, Jesus Christ and Modern Theology (Philadelphia: Trinity, 1990) 55-69,
at 57; and 388-92.
12
Haight, "The Case for Spirit Christology" passim.
CHRISTS PRE-EXISTENCE 311
systematic theologians with what I conceive to be a more accurate
reading of Paul's view of the relationship between God and Jesus
Christ. My thesis, which clearly runs counter to tendencies I have just
described, is not only that the interpretation of certain texts (notably
Phil 2:6-8 and 2 Cor 8:9) requires Christ's pre-existence but that, more
importantly, the full force of Paul's soteriological thought is undercut
if the one whom he, along with the early Christian tradition, came to
call Christ did not emerge from the eternity of God in such a way that
his personal human history is preceded by this existence with God and
plays out an intimate relationship that is prior, in a unique way, to his
human history. To neglect the pre-temporal aspect of this relationship
gravely erodes, as I wish to show, the sense of the extremity of divine
love and grace which lies at the heart of the Paul's gospel. At stake is
nothing less than the Pauline view of God who in Jesus Christ has
reached out to the world in a costly vulnerability of love (see Rom 8:32,
39). First I offer some preliminary clarifications bearing on pr-
existence and the controversy surrounding it.
Pre-existence: Some Clarifications
The notion of pre-existence raises acute problems of a philosophical
nature. In what sense can anyone or anything, for that matter, be said
to have an existence prior to actual existenceunless it be merely in
the foresight or intention of some other party? No one certainly
unless that other party be God, in which case the priority envisaged in
the "pre-" is not a matter of time but a priority that has to do with
eternity, the timeless existence of God. From the perspective of Christ's
personal human life, pre-existence necessarily suggests something of a
before and after. But it is misleading to think entirely or even primar-
ily of temporal succession. Gerald O'Collins puts the matter well when
he writes: "Pre-existence means rather that Christ personally belongs
to an order of being other than the created temporal one. His personal,
divine existence transcends temporal (and spatial) categories. . . .
Eternity transcends time but without being apart from it.
By the same token, it is important to stress that in speaking of
pre-existence, one is not speaking of a pre-existence of Jesus' human-
ity. Jesus Christ did not personally pre-exist as Jesus. Hence one ought
not to speak of a pre-existence of Jesus.
14
Even to use the customary
expression of the pre-existence of Christ can be misleading since the
word "Christ" in its original meaning simply designates the Jewish
Messiah, a figure never thought of as pre-existent in any personal
sense. But in view of the Christian application of "Christ" to Jesus,
13
O'Collins, Christology 238.
14
Haight remarks that "one cannot really think of a prexistence of Jesus" ("The Case
for Spirit Christology" 276). O'Collins rightly insists over against Haight that the classic
doctrine of the Incarnation of the Word never had in view the pre-existence of Jesus in
his human nature (Christology 243-44).
312 THEOLOGICAL STUDIES
virtually as a proper name and in a way going beyond his historical
earthly existence, it is appropriate to discuss the issue in terms of the
pre-existence of Christ, provided one intends thereby to designate sim-
ply the subject who came to historical human existence as Jesus, with-
out any connotation that he pre-existed as a human being.
What is allowed for, however, in this concept of pre-existence is the
capacity to make choices. Nearly thirty years ago, the Oxford scholar
George Caird pointed to this as the crucial factor marking off a pre-
existence that is truly personal from one that simply amounts to being
elected, as regards role and destiny, in the mind or purpose of God (the
attenuated category to which an increasing number of scholars would
consign all the Pauline references that seem to imply pre-existence).
15
My contention is that several passages reflecting Paul's soteriological
thought involve just such a choice made by Christ pre-existent in the
sense here outlined; these bear essentially upon Paul's conception of
Christ's self-emptying love as the outreach of God's love for the world.
Let me add further that it is not my intention to treat at any length,
in a historical-critical way, the question regarding the origin of the
concept of pre-existence nor to consider how its usage with respect to
the person of Jesus Christ arose in Christianity without apparent in-
jury to the basic monotheism inherited from Judaism. Suffice it to say
that, over the past decade, several studies devoted to the status and
function of divine agent figures (personified Wisdom, God's chief angel,
exalted patriarchs) within Jewish monotheism have rendered the at-
tribution of pre-existence to Jesus, even at a comparatively early stage,
far more credible. I refer in particular to the work of Jarl E. Fossum,
A. P. Segal,
17
and L. Hurtado.
18
There is hardly evidence that pre-
Christian Judaism in any of its multiple forms understood personifi-
cations of Wisdom or other divine attributes to constitute hypostases in
any real sense rather than as simple literary personifications of God's
own power and activity. There are no grounds for believing that figures
such as God's principal angel (the Angel of the Lord, Michael, etc.) or
patriarchs (Adam, Enoch, Jacob, Moses, etc.) exalted after their
earthly career to angelic status ever became objects of worship in such
a way as to introduce a truly binitarian element into Jewish theistic
belief of the first century C.E.
19
But the existence of such speculation
1 5
G. B. Caird, "The Development of the Doctrine of Christ in the New Testament/' in
Christ For Us Today, ed. . Pittenger (London: SCM, 1968) 66-80, esp. 78-80.
1 6
Fossum, The Name of God and the Angel of the Lord: Samaritan and Jewish Con-
cepts of Intermediation and the Origin of Gnosticism (Tbingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1985).
17
Segal, Two Powers in Heaven: Early Rabbinic Reports about Christianity and Gnos-
ticism (Leiden: Brill, 1977); "Pre-existence and Incarnation: A Response to Dunn and
Holladay," Semeia 30 (1985) 83-95; The Other Judaisms of Late Antiquity (Atlanta:
Scholars, 1987) esp. ix-xvii, 1-40.
18
Hurtado, One God, One Lord: Early Christian Devotion and Ancient Jewish Mono-
theism (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988).
19
Hurtado convincingly criticizes Fossum for holding the contrary view on both scores
CHRISTS PRE-EXISTENCE 313
about heavenly figures in the rich variety of first-century Judaism
could have served and probably did serve to provide early Christianity
with the conceptual and linguistic framework needed to express its
distinctive beliefs about Jesus. That the Crucified and Risen One came
to be thought of as exalted to God's right hand (see the frequent ap-
plication to Christ of Ps 110:1), as bearer of the divine name (see Phil
2:9), as Son of Man destined to return in glory (see Mark 8:28; 13:26;
14:62 [each with parallels in Matthew and Luke]; Matt 24:27; Luke
17:24; Acts 7:56), as pre-existent; that he became an object of prayer,
invocation, and worship: all this required an impulse (the impact of his
life, death, and resurrection; the experience of the Spirit) beyond what
the Jewish background could provide. There was undoubtedly a point
of discontinuity or mutation. But the carriers were at hand to encap-
sulate and express that mutation when eventually it did occur, early
enough to find reflection in Paul.
22
The important role that Old Testament and postbiblical Jewish
Wisdom motifs are likely to have played in providing the carriers for
early christological development, and specifically for the concept of
pre-existence, has long been acknowledged.
23
The research of scholars
such as Segal and Hurtado has added to this a further dimension that
both fills in the picture and allows for the possibility of a much earlier
christological development than previously seemed plausible.
24
If, as
appears to have been the case, the Crucified One was seen as exalted
by God and graced with God's Name, so as to achieve God's principal
agent status, and if such a combination of angelic and patriarchal
exaltation status was itself joined with identification with God's pre-
existent Wisdom, destined to be sent on saving missions (see Wisdom
9:4, 9-10), it is not difficult to account for the attribution of personal
(One God, One Lord 37-39, 47, 85-90). Segal also doubts that angelic agents were
regarded as sufficiently independent of the deity to constitute heresy with regard to
Jewish monotheism before the end of the first century (Two Powers 200-01); see also
Dunn, Christology, 2nd ed., xxv.
20
See Segal, Two Powers 206-08.
21
This is the terminology of Hurtado whose thesis I am basically following here.
22
On this see further the interesting reflections of the Jewish scholar Alan Segal in
"Pre-existence and Incarnation" 93.
23
See E. Schweizer, "Zur Herkunft der Prexistenzvorstellung bei Paulus," Evange-
lische Theologie 19 (1959) 65-70; "Zum religionsgeschichtlichen Hintergrund der 'Send-
ungsformer Gal 4:4f, Rom 8:3f, Joh 3:16f, 1 Joh 4:9," Zeitschrift fr neutestamentliche
Wissenschaft 57 (1966) 199-210; art.
u
huios, ktl.
n
in R. Kittel, ed. Theological Dictionary
of the New Testament, 10 vols. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964-76) 8.354^57, 363-92,
399; M. Hengel, The Son of God (London: SCM, 1976) 66-76; Hurtado, One God, One
Lord 42-50.
24
Dunn now acknowledges that he ought to have paid more attention to these aspects
than he did when composing the first edition of the work (Christology, 2nd ed., xxiv-
xxvi), but he is still inclined to date the emergence of a genuine binitarianism in Chris-
tianity to the close of the first century, as reflected in the Johannine literature (ibid,
xxviii-xxx).
314 THEOLOGICAL STUDIES
pre-existence to Christ at a period comparatively close to the original
impulse that gave rise to the early Christian movement.
25
EVIDENCE FOR PRE-EXISTENCE IN PAUL
After these preliminary remarks, I now want to address Pauline
texts directly. With respect to Christ's pre-existence, the relevant texts
fall into different categories. Two texts, Phil 2:6-8 and 2 Cor 8:9, ap-
pear to require it. Others, notably the sending statements in Rom
8:3-4 and Gal 4:4r-5, as well as Rom 8:32 and 15:3, make good sense in
terms of it, once the possibility that Paul entertained the idea of
Christ's pre-existence has been established on the basis of the first
two.
26
Of equal importance, I hope to show at some length, is Paul's
presentation of Christ as the charisma of God in Rom 5:15-17, a text
not previously considered in relation to this issue.
Philippians 2:6-8
For obvious reasons the Christ-hymn in Phil 2:6-11 has been the
chief focus of the debate concerning pre-existence. Whether Paul wrote
the hymnic sequence himself or was quoting from some earlier Chris-
tian tradition is not really decisive. It is unlikely that Paul would have
appealed to a tradition containing Christology at odds with what he
himself believed. If there is pre-Pauline tradition here, that renders
the dating of the Christology it contains earlier still.
27
In any case,
25
The attribution of such tendencies to an earlier period makes it even less likely that
influence from the non-Jewish Greco-Roman milieu exercised significant influence upon
the rise of a high Christology, the thesis characteristic of the History of Religions school
dominant in the early part of this century. Greek influence there may certainly have
been, but such influence was in all likelihood mediated through Hellenistic Judaism, as
reflected, e.g., in the Alexandrian Book of Wisdom, Philo, etc., rather than being directly
imported; see L. Hurtado, "New Testament Christology: Retrospect and Prospect," Se-
meia 30 (1985) 15-27, esp. 19-20.
26
1 set aside here consideration of what appears to be a citation of a credal fragment
by Paul in 1 Cor 8:6, a text often cited in connection with the pre-existence of Christ. It
is difficult to contest that what appears at first sight to be an allusion to Christ's
protological mediation of creation could equally refer to his soteriological mediation of
the new creation (see Kuschel, Born before All Time? 285-91). Likewise shaky as a
foundation for pre-existence is the midrashic allusion in 1 Cor 10:4 to Christ as the rock
which accompanied the Israelites in the desert. It simply applies in a typological way the
past experience of Israel to the present situation of the Church: Christ functions for
believers as the rock functioned for Israel (see ibid. 280-85). I set aside consideration of
the allusion in Col 1:15-16 on the grounds that it stems from a later, deutero-Pauline
generation.
27
Philippians is most plausibly dated around 56-57, composed during Paul's extended
stay at Ephesus in the course of what is traditionally known as his Third Missionary
Journey (see Acts 19:1-20:1). For considerations against a later dating, during a period
of imprisonment in Rome in the early 60s, see B. Byrne, "Philippians," in New Jerome
Biblical Commentary 792. If the hymn is pre-Pauline, it is likely that the Apostle first
encountered it during the formative period of his association with the vigorous Christian
community in Antioch in the early to middle 40s, before the launching of his own more
independent missionary career.
CHRIST'S PRE-EXISTENCE 315
Paul in no sense mounts a case for the Christology of the hymn. He
simply assumes that it is something his audience has long since come
to accept.
The issue of pre-existence turns upon interpretation of the first half
of the hymn, w. 6-8, referring to the pre-exaltation career of Christ, as
distinct from w. 9-11 which treat of his post-Resurrection exaltation
as cosmic Lord. The opening verses contain references to choices made
by Christ which fundamentally altered the pattern of his existence,
culminating in the supreme lowliness of the cross. The question is
whether these choices are pictured as operative purely within the span
of his human life or whether they actually include a decisive choice to
become human in an existence in the divine eternity in some sense
prior to the human way of being.
To set out in translation the relevant portion of the text might seem
to determine from the start several matters best left open at this stage.
However, I offer a provisional translation:
6. Who, though his condition was divine, did not consider being like God some-
thing to exploit for selfish gain,
7. But rather he emptied himself, adopting the condition of a slave, taking on
the likeness of human beings.
And being found in human form,
8. he lowered himself further still, becoming obedient unto death, even to
death upon a cross.
As regards the status of Christ, much depends upon the interpreta-
tion of the clauses in the opening stanza (v. 6). Traditionally, the first
phrase ("his condition was divine") has been taken as an indication of
Christ's belonging to the divine way of being.
28
However, it is also
possible to see here simply an echo of Gen 1:26-27 where human be-
ings are stated to have been created in God's own image and likeness,
a reading that lends obvious support to those who state that the hymn
consistently compares the behavior of Christ with that of Adam.
29
There are firm grounds for detecting an Adamic aura in the hymn.
Whether the Adamic tone begins precisely at this point is another
matter. Those skeptical of the Adamic allusion have long since pointed
out the considerable variation in language between the Septuagint of
the relevant phrases in Gen 1:26-27 and that of the hymn.
30
Apart
28
See esp. J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul's Epistle to the Philippians, rev. ed. (London:
Macmillan, 1903) 127-33. A review of more recent interpretation is given in R. P. Mar-
tin's classic survey, Carmen Christi: Philippians 2:5-11 in Recent Interpretation and in
the Setting of Early Christian Worship, rev. ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983) xx-xxi,
99-133.
29
See Dunn, Christology 114-21; Murphy-O'Connor, "Christological Anthropology"
passim; Fossum, Name of God 292-97; Wright, Climax of the Covenant 58-59; Macquar-
rie, Jesus Christ and Modern Thought 57-59.
30
See Wright, Climax of the Covenant 72.
316 THEOLOGICAL STUDIES
from whether an Aramaic original may underlie the present text,
31
readers of the Greek text would be hard put to recognize here an
intertextual echo of Gen 1:26-27, let alone an allusion to Adam.
32
The exact sense of the Greek word morph is elusive. In the present
context, the meaning must be such as to allow for the contrast which
the text seems to offer between the phrase en morph theou in v. 6 and
morphn doulou in v. 7b. It seems best to interpret the word not as a
reference to essential being,
33
nor to external shape or manifestation,
34
but to the specific form in which the identity and status of someone/
something is expressed and can thus come to be known and recog-
nized.
35
Though not precisely equivalent to status, morph indicates
the way of being attached to status. Thus the hymn indicates from the
outset that Christ enjoyed a way of being that may appropriately be
termed divine.
Most discussion down the ages has focused upon the following
phrase: "did not consider being like God something to exploit for selfish
gain" (v. 6b). It is not necessary to review here all the interpretations
proposed, since the British scholar N. T. Wright has undertaken that
task in exhaustive detail.
36
As Wright points out, discussion reached a
decisive stage with the publication in 1971 of an article by R. W.
Hoover.
37
On the basis of a rigorous re-examination of the comparative
philological evidence brought forward by previous scholars (especially
W. Jaeger), Hoover concluded that the ouch harpagmon phrase repre-
sents a Greek idiom where harpagmos has the sense of something
which one might exploit for selfish gain. This analysis (never, as
Wright points out,
38
conclusively challenged on philological grounds)
cuts right through the old dilemma between res rapta (really res reti-
nencia) and res rapienda explanations. What Christ already possessed,
likeness to God (expressed both in the phrases
<
his condition was di-
vine" and "being like God"
39
), he did not consider something to exploit
for selfish gain. Instead, on the contrary (the force of the firm "but")
31
See P. Grelot, "Deux notes critiques sur Philippiens 2, 6-11," Biblica 54 (1973)
169-86, at 185-86, where Grelot sets out a reconstructed Aramaic original.
32
For a lexical critique of this association with the eikn of Gen 1:26-27, see esp. D. H.
Wallace, "A Note on morph," Theologische Zeitschrift 22 (1966) 19-25.
33
So J. Gnilka in agreement with earlier writers such as M. Dibelius, E. Ksemann,
and G. Bornkamm (Der Philipperbrief, 2nd ed. [Freiburg: Herder, 1976] 114).
34
So D. Steenburg, "The Case Against the Synonymity of Morph and Eikn," Journal
for the Study of the New Testament 34 (1988) 77-86.
35
W. Phlmann, art. "morph," in Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament, 3 vols.
(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990-93) 2.442-43.
36
Wright, Climax of the Covenant 56-98.
37
R. W. Hoover, "The Harpagmos Enigma: A Philological Solution," Harvard Theo-
logical Review 64 (1971) 95-119.
38
Wright, Climax of the Covenant 78, 85-86.
39
One of the great weaknesses of the explanation along res rapienda lines favored
especially by those wishing to see a contrast with Adam at this point is that it is forced
to make a contrast between these two phrases, which is contrary to the use of the
articular infinitive in Paul (see ibid. 83).
CHRISTS PRE-EXISTENCE 317
he saw likeness to God
40
as involving self-emptying for the good of
others. There is a key definition of divinity here, to which I shall re-
turn.
The following stanza (v. 7a-c) gives expression to the first deliberate
choice of Christ flowing from this perception of what was appropriate
for one like God: namely, self-emptying to take on the condition of a
slave, adopting the likeness of human beings. The emptying is not to be
taken in a literal sense, as in the old kenotic christologies, but rather
as a strong statement of going to the opposite extreme. The opposite
extreme for one in the condition of God was to take on the condition of
a slave.
41
It involved a movement from being lord of all to being lord of
nothing. In terms of strict logic one might have expected that the
double reference to becoming human that follows (v. 7cd: "taking on
the likeness of human beings and being found in human form") might
have preceded the reference to taking on the condition of a slave (v. 7b).
But the hymn simply assumes that, from the divine point of view,
unredeemed human life is an existence of slavery (see especially Gal
4:1-7, 8-10),
42
and the divine/slave polarity is more significant than
the divine/human polarity which it necessarily presupposes.
43
The phrases that explicitly point to Christ's becoming human are
open to a highly docetic reading. The Greek word homoima can mean
both "identical copy" and "(mere) resemblance," and schma can ex-
press outward appearance only. More likely, however, both phrases
40
The phrase to einai isa theou does not express an absolute equality with God in the
sense of the conciliar definitions formulated in response to the christological controver-
sies of the patristic era. The use of the neuter plural isa, rather than the masculine
singular isos (as in John 5:18), represents a weakening in the sense of likeness; see P.
Grelot, "Deux expressions difficiles de Philippiens 2, 6-7," Biblica 53 (1972) 495-507,
esp. 498-501; . Byrne, "Sons of God""Seed of Abraham" (Rome: Biblical Institute,
1979) 201 n. 20.
4 1
Attempts to take the Greek word doulos here in the less pejorative sense of servant
and so find a reference to the Servant figure of Isaiah 42:1-7; 49:1-7; 50:4-9; 52:13
53:12 are not on the whole convincing. Apart from linguistic problems, the more positive
note attaching to the role of such a servant figure gravely weakens the contrast (divine
condition/slave condition) which the logic of the hymn requires. On this point I differ
from Wright who firmly maintains an allusion to the Isaianic Servant here (Climax of the
Covenant 59-62). For Wright, the hymn conceives of Christ's role in servant terms
because it sees him coming to accomplish the mission marked out for Israel in the
Servant passagesthat of undoing the sin of Adam (ibid. 61).
4 2
See E. Ksemann, "A Critical Analysis of Philippians 2:5-11" in God and Christ-
Existence and Province, ed. R. W. Funk (New York: Harper and Row, 1968) 45-88, esp.
66-67. Ksemann emphasizes too exclusively the Hellenistic context of such a view of
human existence; it could be equally at home in certain strains of Jewish apocalypticism.
43
On the best division of the hymn in terms of structure (that of E. Lohmeyer, Die
Briefe an die Philipper, Kolosser und an Philemon, 6th (13th) edition [Gttingen: Van-
denhoeck & Ruprecht, 1964] 90), the phrases "taking on the likeness of human beings"
and "being found in human form" probably belong to separate stanzas, the former con-
cluding the second three-line stanza (v. 7abc [the first stanza being the three lines of v.
6]), the second beginning the third stanza (w. 7d-8, which is of four lines, unless the final
phrase thanatou de staurou be regarded as an addition).
318 THEOLOGICAL STUDIES
express full identification with the human rather than an element of
reserve. They highlight the paradox of one whose condition was divine
identifying with the human. They also, especially the passive parti-
ciple "being found," stress how Christ now appeared before God: as one
fully identified with the human condition, as a true representative of
humanity. This identification in the sight of God paves the way for the
divine reaction expressed in the final part of the hymn (v. 9) to the
obedience of this (representative) human being.
The second deliberate choice of the God-like subject of the hymn
finds expression in v. 8. The main verb of the statement expressing
"lowering" corresponds to the main verb expressing "emptying" in the
previous verse. There is a strict continuity between the two: the im-
pulse to self-emptying that was appropriate for one in the divine con-
dition now, within the human condition, finds expression in the low-
ering of oneself to the point of obedience "unto death, even to the death
upon a cross." The point seems to be that, even though involved in the
slave situation of human existence, Christ could have lived a more or
less normal human life not involving further subjection. Instead, in
line with his embodiment of the divine generosity, he chose to be sub-
ject in the most extreme sense.
44
The point I wish to make from this analysis of the first part of the
hymn is that it makes most sense in terms of an "invasion" from the
divine sphere into the human. Restricting Christ's career to his human
history alone runs into the crucial difficulty that, according to the
language in w. 6-7ab, the subject adopts an attitude and makes a
decision prior to becoming human (v. 7cd).
45
It also ruins the sense of
continuity in a divine outpouring of generosity that seems central to
the overall argument of the hymn and certainly to Paul's application of
it in w. 34.
At the same time, as Wright insists,
46
finding pre-existence in the
Philippians hymn in no sense excludes an allusion to Adam. It is not a
44
This note of self-lowering is the chief point linking the hymn to the exhortation
which both precedes and appeals to it; see w. 3-4: "Do nothing from selfish ambition or
conceit, but in humility reckon others as better than yourselves, looking not to your own
interests but to the interests of others," and Rom 15:3: "Christ did not please himself,
but. . . " The hymn may imply that Christ served his fellow human beings as a slave;
compare Mark 10:45; Matt 20:28.
45
Murphy-O'Connor's argument against pre-existence is fatally flawed by the weak-
ness of his analysis of v. 7, which, concentrating on comparisons with Wisdom 2-5, fails
to recognize how the language signals a radical change in status (from divine to human)
("Christological Anthropology" 40-44); see Byrne, "Sons of God""Seed of Abraham"
200 n. 17; Martin, Carmen Christi xxi; Wright Climax of the Covenant 75; Kuschel, Born
before All Time? 253; O'Collins, Christology 35-36. Likewise to be rejected is Fossum's
claim that "the aorist participles [the reference is to labn and genomenos] plausibly can
be taken to convey the meaning that Jesus possessed the likeness' and "fashion' of man
also before [italics original] his emptying* and humbling himself (Name of God 295).
Fossum's own rather idiosyncratic punctuation itself suggests that the "emptying" pre-
cedes the transformations indicated in the participles.
46
Wright, Climax of the Covenant 59, 90-94.
CHRIST'S PRE-EXISTENCE 319
matter of choosing between Incarnation and Adamic Christology, as
J. D. G. Dunn seems to presuppose.
47
An Adamic allusion can be pre-
served, indeed seen as central to the hymn, provided one realizes (as is
also the case in Rom 5:12-21) that Christ is contrasted with Adam as
much as he is compared.
48
Without suggesting that Christ and Adam
were like God in precisely the same way (hence the difference in ter-
minology between the language of Gen 1:26-27 and Phil 2:6), the hymn
does presuppose that both were like God. The contrast emerges in that
one (Adam) reckoned that likeness something to exploit for selfish
gain, whereas the other (the pre-existent Christ) considered it meant
going against self-interest (see Rom 15:3) to pour oneself out for others,
defining thereby the true meaning of being like God. Thus the hymn
sees Christ as voluntarily and generously entering the human sphere
to pick up the role in which Adam had failed and so to reverse the dire
universal consequences that Adam's failure set in train (see Rom 5:
12-21).
49
Christ repairs the damage as a human being, but, for the
author of the hymn, Christ is more than a human being. He represents
an invasion of divine generosity into the human sphere.
Some authors, while conceding that this hymn embedded in Philip-
pians does contain an allusion to the pre-existence of Christ, nonethe-
less treat its occurrence as untypical and anomalous, and strive to
distance it from Paul as far as possible. Kuschel, for example, remarks:
"With its key statements about Christ the hymn stands 'in isolation' in
the whole of Pauline theology."
50
But it is quite illegitimate, especially
47
Dunn, Christology esp. 119-20, where the point is not that the text excludes pr-
existence but rather that in the light of the Adamic Christology it becomes an unneces-
sary presupposition; see also Fossum, Name of God 296.
48
The most obvious point of contrast with Adam occurs in the reference to Christ as
obedient in v. 8, a point which the explicit contrast in terms of (disobedience made in
Rom 5:19 confirms. More subtly and more significantly, the language in w. 6-7 ("... did
not consider being like God something to exploit for selfish gain. But...") implies a
contrast with one who made the opposite appraisal, and of the possible candidates for
that role "only Adam will do and he does very well" (Wright, Climax of the Covenant 58,
citing G. Caird). But scholarly enthusiasm for Adamic interpretations of New Testament
texts has to take into account recent questioning of the existence of a fixed, continuous
Adam tradition in Judaism prior to the rise of Christianity; see J. R. Levison, Portraits
of Adam in Early Judaism: From Sirach to 2 Baruch (Sheffield: JSOT, 1988) esp.
160-61.
49
See L. Hurtado, "Pre-existence," in Dictionary of Paul and His Letters (Downer's
Grove, 111.: Intervarsity, 1993) 743-46, at 745a; earlier, Hurst, "Re-enter the Pre-existent
Christ,'' 453.
50
Kuschel, Born before All Time? 298. In fact, as his survey proceeds, Kuschel becomes
bolder in denying belief in Christ's pre-existence to Paul. Contrast the more measured
conclusions regarding the Pauline evidence (303-08) with the later statement, "[Paul]
manifestly did not present a pre-existence Christology" (447), while Phil. 2:6 is to be
regarded as pre-Pauline (447-48). Later he writes: "Paul as compared to Phil. 2" [italics
mine] did not "develop further an already existing statement about pre-existence." To fit
into a preconceived systematic interpretation of the shape of the New Testament evi-
dence as a whole (see 491-92), a wedge is placed between Paul and the hymn which he
himself quotes.
320 THEOLOGICAL STUDIES
in the light of a synchronic reading, to isolate and extrapolate elements
which Paul included, which he used in order to bolster important af-
firmations (in the case of Phil 2:6-11, the exhortation in 2:1-5) and
which relate significantly to further statements in the same letter
(notably, the christological expression of hope in 3:20-21). Other evi-
dence in Paul, such as the texts to which I now turn, must be read in
light of, and not against, the allusions to pre-existence in Phil 2:6-11.
2 Corinthians 8:9
As part of his appeal to the Corinthians for generosity in the matter
of the collection, Paul offers in passing a deeply theological consider-
ation: "For you know the generous act (charts) of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that though he was rich, he became poor, so that by his poverty you
might become rich" (2 Cor 8:9). The sentence displays the interchange
pattern typical of soteriological statements in Paul: Christ becomes (or
is sent by the Father to become) what human beings are, namely "sin"
(2 Cor 5:21; see Rom 8:3); "under the law" (Gal 4:4); "under a curse"
(Gal 3:13) in order that "we" might become what he is ("righteous,"
"free from the law," "sons [and daughters] of God," "rich."
51
The attempts of Dunn
52
and others
53
to argue that Christ's richness
refers to his earthly life alone are not convincing. In the light of the
clear allusion to his becoming human in Phil 2:7cd, it is far more
natural to find in this text a reference to the richness Christ enjoyed
pre-existently as one whose condition was divine.
54
The poverty is that
of the slave existence characteristic of humanity fallen in Adam (see
Phil 2:7b). The richness that believers then acquire is the richness of
salvation, which brings them to the state of glory belonging by right to
Christ (see 1 Cor 15:49: "Just as we have borne the image of the man
of dust [Adam], so we shall bear the image of the man of heaven
[Christ]"; see also Rom 8:29; 2 Cor 3:18).
55
5 1
See M. D. Hooker, "Interchange in Christ," JTS n.s. 22 (1971) 349-61.
5 2
Dunn, Christology 121-23. While Dunn is not prepared to dismiss entirely the idea
of Jesus' embracing a life of material poverty (from an earlier life of comparative rich-
ness), he appears to recognize the difficulty of harmonizing this with the traditions
emerging from the Gospels and ultimately opts for a spiritual understanding of the
riches/poverty motif. This would be either in the sense of a contrast between the richness
of Christ's pre-passion communion with God as contrasted with the poverty of the pas-
sion desolation (Mark 15:34) or else in the sense of the contrast between the richness of
being in the image of God in an Adamic sense and freely embracing the poverty of the
fallen Adam state which is the lot of human beings, including especially a destiny to
physical death. Both explanations are forced, each involving an element of speculation
concerning Christ's pre-passion earthly life unparalleled in Paul. See also Wright's cri-
tique at this point (Climax of the Covenant 95 n. 150).
5 3
E.g. Kuschel, Born before All Time? 296-97.
5 4
See C. Barrett, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians (London: Black, 1972) 223;
V. P. Furnish, // Corinthians (New York: Doubleday, 1984) 417.
5 5
For the same salvific sense of riches in Paul, note the statement that "the same Lord
CHRISTS PRE-EXISTENCE 321
Wider Implications
The grace (charts) of Christ to which Paul makes passing appeal in
2 Cor 8:9 is the generous, self-emptying choice implied in his taking on
the human lot. It is this clear implication of a choice on Christ's part
that rules out for texts such as Phil 2:6-8 and 2 Cor 8:9 any sense of
pre-existence in a non-personal way (for example, as expressing simply
the envelopment of Christ's career within the saving wisdom of God).
The remaining interchange texts taken in isolation may be open to
such an interpretation. But, in the light of the pre-existence implied in
Phil 2:6-8 and 2 Cor 8:9, it makes good sense to see them, notably the
sending statements in Rom 8:3-4 and Gal 4:4-5 (see John 3:16-17; 1
John 4:9), as also presenting the phenomenon of Christ as an invasion
of divine grace and generosity into the human sphere from outside.
56
Even soteriological statements that have Christ as subject without
immediate reference to the Father may refer to or at least include a
reference to Christ's pre-existent choice. Rom 15:3 ("Christ did not
please himself, but...") seems to stand particularly close to Phil 2:6-7,
the negative allusion to what Christ did not do preceding, as in the
latter text, the positive indication of his generous act. Paul appeals to
the generosity of Christ in order to motivate the "strong" in faith to
bear with the religious scruples of the "weak" even if in terms of a
mature faith's perception they are free to act otherwise (to eat what
they will).
57
Gal 2:20 ("I live now by faith in the Son of God, who loved
me and delivered himself up for me") probably has primary reference
to Jesus' self-surrender to suffering and death but a wider allusion
reaching back to a pre-existent choice may not be entirely absent.
58
Significantly, the mention of Christ's self-gift in love is followed by the
conclusion, "I do not rebuff the grace of God" (v. 21a); the self-gift of
Christ is always for Paul an expression of the grace of God (see 4:25).
Finally, not to be neglected in this context is Rom 8:32, Paul's most
poignant reference to the Christ-event in relation to the gift of God:
is Lord of all [Jews and Gentiles] enriching all who call on him" (Rom 10:12b; see also
9:22; 11:12) and Paul's sarcastic challenge to the Corinthians: "Already you have all you
want! Already you have become rich! Quite apart from us, you have begun to reign!" (1
Cor 4:8).
56
See W. Kramer, Christ, Lord, Son of God (London: SCM, 1966) 112-15. For the
contrary view, see Dunn, Christology xvii-xviii, 38-47; Kuschel, Born before All Time?
272-77 (Gal 4:4), 300-01 (Rom 8:3).
57
See further B. Byrne, Romans, Sacra Pagina 6 (Collegeville: Liturgical, 1996)
424-26.
58
Kuschel, reacting against Bultmann's reference of this assertion to the pre-existent
Christ, goes so far in the opposite direction as to see it referring not to the historical
conduct of the earthly Jesus but to the post-existent Christ. The basis for this singular
conclusion is that "Paul did not know the historical Jesus and his 'disposition' " (Born
before All Time? 272). Paul may not have personally known the historical Jesus, but he
did believe that Jesus had given himself up in obedience and love for sinful humankind
(Rom 5:6, 8, 19; Phil 2:8; Gal 1:4).
322 THEOLOGICAL STUDIES
"God, who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all." The
language echoes the Septuagint version of Gen 22:16: what God did not
in the end require of Abraham (the sacrifice of his son, Isaac), God did
require of himself for love of human beings.
59
Nothing expresses so
vividly as this the extremity of God's costly involvement in the death of
Christ, though the same note of divine vulnerability is probably im-
plicit in the reference to the sending of his Son in Rom 8:3 and also in
Rom 5:15-17, to which I now turn.
CHRIST THE CHARISMA OF GOD: ROM 5:15-17
Paul's letter to Rome is unique among his writings in being ad-
dressed to a community he has neither founded nor visited. As an
instrument of persuasion, it presupposes a shared symbolic universe
between Paul and his intended audience.
60
Precisely because it is di-
rected to a community not personally shaped by him, though contain-
ing some individuals he knows well (see 16:3-16), Paul has to rely upon
what he believes to be knowledge common to all communities of be-
lievers, whether founded by himself or not. Therefore what Paul takes
for granted in Romans, what he does not have to argue for, sheds
significant light upon early Christian christological understanding.
The kerygmatic part of Romans (1:16-11:36, as distinct from the
paraenesis, 12:1-15:13) is basically a presentation and defense of the
Christian gospel in the emphatically inclusive sense distinctive of
Paul. The gospel summons the nations of the world (Gentiles) to equal
citizenship in the eschatological people of God (1:16-8:39), without this
implying the final exclusion of that large part of Israel that has said
"no" to the proclamation of a crucified Messiah (9:1-11:36). Paul plays
off this inclusive vision against a more restricted view of God's action
that would see it centered upon a righteousness established upon the
basis of the Jewish law. For Paul there is no possibility of human
righteousness, Jewish or Gentile, apart from response in faith to God's
faithful action for the world in Jesus Christ. Faith ensures the avail-
ability of salvation to all human beings. Faith also implies an acknowl-
edgment on the part of believers that they have no personal righteous-
ness to boast of before God, that they are in fact sinners and that their
only hope of salvation lies in submission to the grace of God that comes
to them in the crucified Jesus (3:21-26).
Paul pictures the whole career of Christ, culminating in his death
upon the cross, as an invasion of God's grace and faithfulness (righ-
teousness) into this morass of sinfulness and alienation on the human
side (Rom l:18-3:20).
61
The Resurrection of Jesus represents an inau-
59
See Byrne, Romans 275.
60
1 employ here terminology taken from the sociology of knowledge. For an explana-
tion of the application of this to the understanding of Paul's rhetorical enterprise in
Romans, see Byrne, Romans 6-7.
61
This view of the early chapters of Romans has recently come under challenge from
CHRISTS PRE-EXISTENCE 323
gural victory of the love and power of the Creator over the sinfulness of
human beings. Human beings have only to respond in faith to be jus-
tified and so set upon the path to salvation.
"Set upon the path," however, does not mean "finally arrived." In
Romans 5-8, Paul deals with an issue that inevitably arises, namely
the time-gap that yawns ever more widely between believers' funda-
mental restoration of right relationship with God (justification) and
the arrival of full salvation. Several remnants of the old unredeemed
era continue: proneness to sin, trials and suffering of various kinds
(Rom 5:3-4; 8:18, 23, 35-36) and the prospect of death (Rom 5:12, 17;
8:10). These challenge the sense that all has radically changed with
justification. At the beginning of chapter 5 Paul moves the argument
into a new mode to ensure that the hope of salvation stands.
Within this wider argument for hope the sustained contrast/
comparison between Adam and Christ mounted in 5:12-21 has a par-
ticular role to play. The case for hope now rests upon a contrast be-
tween the situations introduced archetypically into human affairs by
Adam and Christ, both of whom function as figures of universal sig-
nificance for humankind. Paul appears to presuppose in his audience a
knowledge of a tradition about Adam, which, moving somewhat beyond
the narrative of Genesis 3, presents him as bequeathing to the race
sprung from him a universal legacy of sinfulness leading to death. Paul
employs this belief about Adam as a figure of universal significance for
ill as a foil over against which to project, all the more powerfully, a
vision of Christ as a figure of universal significance for good. Where
Adam functioned as an instrument of sin leading to death for all,
Christ functions as an instrument of righteousness, leading to (eternal)
life for all who receive it. The contrast/comparison between the two
figures and the legacies they bequeathed becomes a strong argument
for hope (of salvation leading to eternal life) on the basis that the
influences stemming from each are not equal: the weight lies upon the
Christ-righteousness-life side of the balance over against the Adam-
sin-death side.
62
A surface reading of the passage gives the impression that Paul
S. K. Stowers who blames Augustine for setting the traditional interpretation of the
Western Church in a false direction in this respect (Rereading of Romans 1-6, 176-93).
But Stowers has too univocal a view of that tradition, foisting upon every shade of
Pauline interpretation an extremely pessimistic view of universal depravity into which
humanity has lapsed in an ontological sense. What Paul is proposing in the early chap-
ters of Romans is the universal factual alienation of all human beings from God and the
inability of anything other than the grace of God available in Christ to address that
situation. Stowers further sees Paul's strictures concerning the law as referring to its
ineffectiveness to counter sinfulness on the part of Gentiles only; its role as Torah for the
Jews is not being challenged. But this fails to do justice to the repeated assertions of
universality (where "all" means "Jews as well as Gentiles" or "Gentiles as well as Jews")
that occur throughout the letter (1:16; 2:11; 3:9,23,29-; 4:11-12,16; 5:12-21; 9:22-24;
10:4, 10-13; 11:30-32; see Gal 3:22).
6 2
It is now generally recognized that the purpose of the sequence is primarily to say
324 THEOLOGICAL STUDIES
picks up the contrast/comparison between Adam and Christ, only to
find it too hot to handle. It comes close to dying the death of too many
qualifications. Apart from the clarificatory aside in w. 13-14, the re-
iterated statements in w. 15-17 seem designed to ward off the sug-
gestion of any degree of similarity between Christ and Adam going
beyond the single point that both are individuals of universal signifi-
cance.
The function of these verses is not, however, merely preventative in
this way. Their role in fact is to stir up the sense of overwhelming
superiority on the Christ side that undergirds the argument for hope.
I now propose to examine more closely Paul's understanding of this
divine-human operation as formulated in the phrases of w. 15-17.
Detailed Analysis of Rom 5:15-17
Paul sets the stage for what he wishes to achieve in w. 15-17 with
the remark included somewhat ingenuously at the end of v. 14 to the
effect that Adam was the "type of the one to come." This first allusion
to Christ in the passage suggests a strong measure of comparison
between the two. But this false suggestion allows Paul, in typical
antithetical style, to weigh in with a firm adversative: whereas Adam
is simply a human being, albeit one of universal significance, behind
the human person (literally, "man" [anthrpos]) Jesus Christ stands
the grace and power of the Creator. It is this divine plus on the Christ
side that, after the denial of parity in v. 15a, the more extended for-
mulations in w. 15b-17 serve to bring out.
Setting out the pericope in schematic form reveals that, along with
progression of thought, the passage exhibits a large measure of paral-
lelism:
64
something about Christ and the sure effects of the benefits he brings, rather than about
Adam. The focus upon Adam and the onset of a legacy of sin that has been so strong in
the Western theological tradition stemming from Augustine largely derives from the fact
that Paul breaks off his first formulation of the contrast/comparison after the formula-
tion only of the Adam side (v. 12) in order to clear up a problem concerning the onset of
death as a punishment for sin in the absence of law (w. 1314). This in turn leads him
to stress the ways in which Adam and Christ are imalike (w. 15-17), after dubbing the
former "a type of the one to come" at the end of v. 14. Only at v. 18 is the contrast/
comparison fully stated, to be formulated over and over down to v. 21.
63
Alternative suggestions for the identity of "the one to come," namely Moses or the
person who sins under the law in a generic sense, have not prevailed against the tradi-
tional view seeing here an implied allusion to Christ as Last Adam (see 1 Cor 15:45).
64
Verse 16a echoes the kind of generalized introduction first stated in v. 15. The more
expansive formulations making up v. 15b and v. 17 cohere both in form (conditional
sentences) and argumentative structure (notably the "much more" logic) and also in the
motif of abundance. The (formally somewhat intrusive) observation in v. 16b in fact
supplies the premise giving particular bite to the sense of superiority (abundance) on the
Christ side expressed so triumphantly in v. 17.
CHRISTS PRE-EXISTENCE 325
15a
But it is not a case of,
16a
And it is not a case of,
"As (was) the trespass, "As (the effect of) that one man's sin,
so (is) the gracious gift." so the (effect of the) free gift."
i6b p
o r t
k
e
judgment following that
one trespass brought condemnation,
but the free gift following many
trespasses brings justification.
i5b p
o r
if through one man's trespass
17
For if, through one man's trespass,
many died, death reigned through that one man,
much more have the grace of God and the much more will those who accept the
gift in the grace of the one man Jesus abundance of grace and of the gift of
Christ abounded for many. righteousness reign in life through the
one man, Jesus Christ.
Verse 15a provides, by way of introduction, a concise statement of a
thesis. Adam may be a "type of the one to come" (v. 14), but there is a
radical difference between the two figures. In Adam's case Paul speaks
in terms of a single act, a "trespass." He does not go on to speak, in
strict correspondence, of a righteous act in the case of Christ. Instead,
he dubs what happens on the positive side as charisma. As the -ma
ending suggests, this favorite term of Paul refers to a concrete instan-
tiation or effect of (divine) grace (charts). Implicit, then, already at this
stage is the sense that what stands on the positive side over against
the act of Adam is something more than the action for good of a sig-
nificant human being. The term charisma lends the sense that stand-
ing behind, accompanying, and making effective the act of Christ is the
grace and power of the Creator. This is the grounds for the radical
inequality ("But it is not a case of...") between the contributions made
to human affairs by the First Adam and the Last.
In the long conditional sentence that follows (v. 15b) Paul unpacks
the complex situation signaled by the word charisma. Whereas on the
negative side we have a simple statement that the transgression of
Adam led to death for all (literally, "many"), on the positive side there
is a bifurcation: "much more have the grace (charts) of God and the gift
(drea) in grace of the one man Jesus Christ abounded for many." The
"and" is significant. The double formulation is no mere rhetorical flour-
ish but draws attention to the divine involvement in the act of Christ,
making a stark contrast with the solitary status of Adam.
More precisely, the second phrase specifies the concrete "gift" which
God's grace promotes through Christ. The "gift" is almost certainly the
gift of justification (see v. 17), a gift which only God, as Judge of the
world, could bestow (see 3:5-6). There is a distinct echo here of the
description of God's justifying action given earlier in the letter: "For all
have sinned and stand deprived of the glory of God. They are being
justified as a gift (drean) by his grace (t autou chariti) through the
redemption which has come about in Christ Jesus, whom God put
forward as a means of expiation" (3: 23-25). In the present passage
(Rom 5:15), however, the specification attached to "the gift" suggests
326 THEOLOGICAL STUDIES
that the second reference to grace is precisely to the grace of Christ.
Paul did not write, as we might have expected, "the gift in grace of the
one man Jesus Christ" but "the gift in grace, that of the (t tou) one
man Jesus Christ." Though all springs ultimately from the grace of
God and Christ is always an instrument of God's grace, Paul seems to
want to signalize Christ's act as in itself an act of grace.
65
In the wider
context of Paul's Christology, this can only allude to Christ's death as
an act of self-emptying love, in line with the soteriology present in texts
such as Phil 2:6-8; Rom 5:6,8; 15:3; 1 Cor 8:11; 2 Cor 5:14-15; 8:9; Gal
1:4; 2:20. The full, double formulation is, then, in no sense an expres-
sion of redundancy
66
but a carefully framed statement expressing the
divine-human continuity involved in the act of Christ.
The final word in v. 15, "abounded," brings in the note of exuberance
and prepares the way for the development contained in the following
parallel formulation, w. 16-17. Once again there is a concise intro-
ductory statement of dissimilarity (v. 16a), though with a slight change
of terminology. The participle "one man's sinning" corresponds to "one
man's trespass," the participial phrase with the preposition dia fol-
lowed by the genitive stressing agency. On the positive side, the word
"gift" (dorema) brings out the more specific sense charisma that has
been introduced in v. 15b: the gift proceeding from God's grace,
namely, justification in Christ (see 3:24).
This sense of justification becomes explicit in v. 16b, a formally
somewhat intrusive phrase but one which makes a key contribution to
the whole argument. Playing with even greater intensity upon words
with the -ma ending, Paul points to the totally different circumstances
of the acts which preceded God's response. Adam's act of trespass pro-
voked a negative judgment (krima) that entailed "condemnation"
(katakrima) for all his descendants (contrast the positive announce-
ment "There is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus" in 8:1).
But the sin of Adam took place on neutral terrain, as it were, prior to
the existence of any surrounding milieu of sin that might have exer-
cised an influence upon it. Such was not the case with respect to the
Last Adam. The act of grace (charisma again) that came about through
6 5
C. . B. Cranfield rightly criticizes an earlier commentator, O. Michel, for not pay-
ing sufficient attention to the article following chariti and so taking the phrase as simply
meaning "the gift of grace on the part of Christ" (A Critical and Exegetical Commentary
on the Epistle to the Romans, 2 vols. [Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1975, 1979] 1.285-86).
However, Cranfield himself does not go far enough in appreciation of the force of the
article, simply identifying the gift in the end with the grace of God, understood as
righteousness, and failing to appreciate that the article really does signal a grace spe-
cifically tied to Christ. See O. Kuss: "because, however, there is express mention of the
'gift' (drea) one canin a way parallel to what is intended by the 'grace of God*think
here also (as indeed in the case of 2 Cor 8:9) of the goodness and love of Jesus Christ,
which, as it manfests itself in the saving act, is, together with the goodness of God, the
source of the gift of salvation" (Der Rmerbrief bersetzt und erklrt, 3 vols. [Regensburg:
Pustet, 1957, 1959, 1978] 1.235; translation mine).
66
Dunn's use of this expression is inappropriate (Romans 1.280).
CHRISTS PRE-EXISTENCE 327
Christ took place "following upon many transgressions," the entire
torrent of sin unleashed by Adam (v. 12; see 3:23). Christ did not
perform his act on neutral terrain; he had to swim against and counter
the dark current of human sin that had swelled up and engulfed the
world following upon the sin of Adam. In place of the condemnation
that might justly and properly have been the final divine verdict upon
the mass of human sin, there came justification or acquittal.
67
My sense is that the indication of the circumstances of Christ's act
given by the simple phrase "following many trespasses" in v. 16b is
crucial to Paul's argument. What occurred was an act of human love
that was at the same time a divine outpouring of love and grace so
great in its generosity as to be able to counter and wipe out the sum
total of human selfishness and hostility to love expressed in the accu-
mulated sinning of humankind. Only a divine act of love could have
achieved so massive an effect. In it, according to the formulation in
3:25-26, God provided a means of expiation that could deal with those
sins of the past, as well as with all sin of the "present time," that is, the
time of the preaching of the gospel until the second coming of Christ.
68
The phrase "following many trespasses" essentially continues an ar-
gument stated repeatedly in the preceding section, 5:6-11: what shows
God's love for us is that it was while we were still sinners that Christ
died for the ungodly (v. 8); while we were enemies, God reconciled us
through the death of his Son (v. 10a). This, then, is what demonstrates
the abundance or overflow of grace: the fact that grace had by far the
harder task, had to swim so mightily against the current, in order to
achieve its effect and overcome the fatal legacy of sin.
Though formally parallel to v. 15b, the long, triumphant statement
in v. 17 actually draws the consequences that arise out of this state-
ment of circumstances in v. 16b. If one man's act of trespass has
brought about the reign of death, how much more will those who re-
ceive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in
life through the one man Jesus Christ. Presupposed here, as indeed
throughout Romans 5-8, is the axiom that righteousness (being found
righteous at the judgment) is the essential prerequisite for the gaining
67
Paul probably uses the ambiguous term dikaima not simply for purposes of eu-
phony, but to hold together the double aspect of the Christ event. It was at one and the
same time both a supreme act of righteousness and an instrument of divine acquittal,
justification (see the two aspects brought out with regard to the display of God's righ-
teousness through the Christ event in 3:26: "to show that he is both righteous and
'rightwising' ").
68
As is now widely recognized, the total statement of redemption formulated in Rom
3:24-26, including the specific term hilastrion, has to be interpreted in a way that does
full justice to Paul's strong affirmation of the divine initiative ("God put him forward"),
not in a way that drives a wedge between the action of God and that of Christ, as in the
satisfaction model of the redemption; see further Byrne, Romans 126-29; O'Collins,
Christology 199-212.
328 THEOLOGICAL STUDIES
of eternal life.
69
The gift of righteousness transposes the reign of death
into the prospect of reigning in life for those who receive it. Having so
powerfully brought out the inequality, the abundance on the Christ-
grace side, Paul can now go on in the remainder of the passage to
formulate the contrast/comparison in a more strictly parallel fashion
(w. 18, 19, 21), repairing the break in the argument that occurred at
v. 12d>
Conclusion from Rom 5:15-17
The conclusion arising out of this detailed analysis is that central to
Paul's argument is a sense of Christ's act as an exercise of self-
emptying love sufficient to overcome the mass of selfishness involved
in human sinfulness of all time. Christ's act is capable of this because
it is not only the act of a human figure, albeit one of universal signifi-
cance, but is also the expression and indeed the conduit of divine grace
and generosity. This is what Paul's argument in Rom 5:15-17 brings
out and what it essentially presupposes. If Christ's love is not at one
and the same time the divine love, then the whole soteriological
schema falls or is at least gravely weakened. The love of the human
person Jesus who became obedient unto death must be strictly con-
tinuous with the love of the divine being who emptied himself and took
on the slave existence of unredeemed humanity. Further back still,
that generous gift of the divine being must be continuous with God's
costly giving up of his own Son (8:32; see 5:8-10; 8:3; Gal 4-5) for the
reconciliation of an alienated world.
71
The entire trajectory of love
behind the Christ event and the benefits it brings, the fact that Christ's
self-gift is also charisma, implies a divine invasion of grace and love
into a human morass of selfishness and sin. The sense of Christ as the
69
Romans 8:10c provides a neat Pauline formulation of this axiom "the Spirit means
life because of righteousness.
,,
For copious references in the Jewish apocalyptic tradition
presupposed by Paul, see Byrne, Romans 58, 240-41.
70
There is no need to pursue the contrast/comparison in detail through the remainder
of the passage. Verse 18 offers what is perhaps the most accurate formulation, with an
explicit exploitation of the openness of dikaima to double meaning. Verse 19 speaks of
both acts, that of Adam and that of Christ, in terms of "(dis)obedience" in a way remi-
niscent of the reference to Christ's "obedience unto death" in Phil 2:8. Verse 20 points to
the role of the law on the negative side in a way which again underlines the supremacy
of grace: where sin "abounded," grace "hyperabounded." Verse 21 sums up the contrast-
ing consequences in a final expression of hope: where the prevalence of sin caused death
to "reign" (see w. 14,17), now the gift of righteousness causes grace to reign "leading to
eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord."
71
Paul's lack of interest in the details of Jesus' life prior to his deathmore accu-
rately, the lack of appeal to those details in the arguments deployed in his lettersmay
be explained on the basis of his acute sense of the overwhelming love of God displayed
in the self-gift of Christ (Gal 2:20; 2 Cor 5:14-15). In Paul's eyes, this consideration of
itself provided believers with all the motivation needed to confront generously any pas-
toral or ethical challenge.
CHRISTS PRE-EXISTENCE 329
pre-existent Son whose entrance into the world represented a costly
giving up on the part of the Father is an essential element of Paul's
soteriological vision.
REFLECTIONS ON FEMINIST CHRISTOLOGY AND SPIRIT CHRISTOLOGY
In recent years feminist theology has argued the case for preferring
a Wisdom Christology over the Son Christology that has traditionally
held sway. Elizabeth Johnson, in particular, has rightly drawn atten-
tion to the prevalence of Wisdom categories in biblical literature and
especially in the presentation of the person and work of Jesus in the
Gospels. The advantage of such a Christology is that it avoids retro-
jecting upon the Godhead, specifically upon the Second Person of the
Trinity, the maleness of the human Jesussomething which the Son
Christology inevitably tends to do, at least in popular imagination.
73
The Wisdom Christology preserves much better the mystery and in-
comprehensibility of the divine person.
74
It opens up new possibilities
for a systematic theology attempting to grapple with the androcentric
nature of the tradition.
As noted earlier, the centrality of the Wisdom categories as the car-
riers for early christological development has long been acknowledged
and is not here in question.
76
Nor do I wish to dispute or seek to reverse
the possibilities such a Christology holds out for a more inclusive
sense of God.
77
At the same time, in line with the overall tenor of this
study, I would argue that neglect of the Son of God category also
entails considerable loss, specifically in connection with the contribu-
tion of Paul (though much the same could also be said with respect to
John). What Wisdom Christology brings out less explicitly is the sense
of God's familial involvement in the work of redemption, the sense of
the cost to God in the giving up of God's own Son expressed in texts
such as Rom 8:4 and 8:32. With this is lost or at least severely weak-
ened the sense of divine vulnerability in love that speaks far more
powerfully to contemporary human beings than the omnipotence
stressed in earlier times, a revisioning of the divine which Elizabeth
72
E. Johnson, "Jesus, the Wisdom of God: A Biblical Basis for Non-Androcentric
Christology,
,,
Ephemerides theologicae Lovaniensis 61 (1985) 261-94, esp. 276-89; She
Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse (New York: Crossroad,
1992) 94-98. See also the sympathetic treatment given to this by Denis Edwards, Jesus
the Wisdom of God: An Ecological Theology (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1995) 57-62.
73
Johnson, "Jesus, the Wisdom of God" 289; She Who Is 152-54, 165-66.
74
See Edwards, Jesus the Wisdom of God 60; Johnson, "Jesus, the Wisdom of God"
280.
75
Johnson, "Jesus, the Wisdom of God" 291; see also 280, 284.
76
See n. 23 above.
77
Elizabeth Johnson observes: "The metaphors of Word and Son most often used to
articulate the relation between Jesus the Christ and God's absolute mystery signify not
maleness in God but a certain divine relationality that can be superbly reprised in the
symbol of Sophia" (She Who Is 166).
330 THEOLOGICAL STUDIES
Johnson is at pains to present.
78
Moreover, though Wisdom is personi-
fied in certain biblical presentations (most notably Prov 8:1-9:6), the
christological Wisdom strains in the New Testament do not bring out
so clearly the sense of loving personal choice expressed in formulations
such as Paul's "the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for
me" (Gal 2:20; see 2 Cor 8:9).
Spirit Christology as proposed recently by Roger Haight
79
appears
vulnerable to the same critique. Haight rightly indicates the firm bib-
lical basis to which such a Christology can lay claim and indicates its
more dynamic sense of the divine presence and power operative in
Jesus. In this respect of more forthrightly bringing out the truth that
God's very self acted in Jesus, it has for Haight an advantage over the
symbols of God's Word and Wisdom which, "insofar as they became
personified and then hypostasized, tend to connote someone or some-
thing distinct from and less than God that was incarnate in Jesus even
though it is called divine or of God."
80
From a Pauline and Johannine
perspective, however, one may query whether the personification and
hypostasization really does undercut the sense of God's personal pres-
ence in Jesus and ask whether it does not, in fact, preserve more
adequately than the Spirit Christology the sense of a costly outreach of
divine love so central to Paul's gospel.
81
My point would be then that the sense of Christ as "God's own Son"
(Rom 8:3, 32) and as pre-existent Son is truly central to the biblical
revelation of God and cannot be downplayed without serious loss. The
witness of Paul, in which the Christology of Phil 2:6-8 must be in-
cluded rather than excluded, indicates the remarkably early presence
of this conception in the post-Easter Christian community. What the
impulse for this may have been remains a central question for Chris-
tology, as well as for historical inquiry into the rise of Christianity.
78
Ibid. 265-72.
79
R. Haight, "The Case for Spirit Christology," TS 53 (1992) 257^87.
80
Ibid. 272.
81
Haight's article, while in general admirably comprehensive in its consideration of
critical issues raised by its central thesis, is notably lacking in attention to the salvific
role of Jesus' suffering and death.